"Really, Lavinia, you are most entertaining. I trust I am capable of caring for myself and mine own honour." "Oh, don't sneer--don't sneer!" she cried. "Sometimes I think I quite hate you!" "You would be the more amusing, my dear." She swept the back of her hand across her eyes in a characteristic movement. "How cross I am!" she said, and laughed waveringly. "You must bear with me, Tracy. Indeed, I am not well." "You should take the waters," he repeated. "Oh, I do!--I do! And that reminds me that I must look for your beauty." "She is not like to be there," he answered. "'Tis only very seldom that she appears." "What! Is she then _religieuse_?" "_Religieuse_! Why, in heaven's name?" "But not to walk in the Rooms--!" "She is staying here with her aunt, who has been ill. They do not mix much in society." "How very dreadful! Yet she used to walk in the Rooms, for you met her there?" "Yes," he admitted coolly. "'Tis for that reason that she now avoids them." "Oh, Tracy, the poor child!" exclaimed his sister in a sudden fit of pity. "How can you persecute her, if she dislikes you?" "She does not." "Not! Then--" "Rather, she fears me. But she is intrigued, for all that. I persecute her, as you call it, for her own (and my) ultimate good. But they quit Bath in a few days, and then, _nous verrons_!" He rose. "What of Honest Dick?" "Don't call him by that odious name! I will not have it!" "Odious, my dear? Odious? You would have reason an I called him _Dis_honest Dick." "Don't! Don't!" she cried, covering her ears. His Grace laughed softly. "Oh, Lavinia, you must get the better of these megrims of yours, for there is nought that sickens a man sooner, believe me." "Oh, go away!--go away!" she implored. "You tease me and tease me until I cannot bear it, and indeed I do not _mean_ to be shrewish! Please go!" "I am on the point of doing so, my dear. I trust you will have in a measure recovered when next I see you. Pray bear my respects to Hon--to the Honourable Richard." She stretched out her hand. "Come again soon!" she begged. "I shall be better to-morrow! 'Tis only to-day that my head aches till I could shriek with the worry and the pain of it! Come again!" "Unfortunately I anticipate leaving Bath within a day or two. But nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to comply with your wishes." He kissed her hand punctiliously, and took his leave. At the door he paused, and looked back mockingly. "By the way--her name is--Diana." He bowed again and swept out, as Lavinia buried her face in the cushions and burst into tears. It was thus that Richard found her, twenty minutes later, and his concern was so great that it in part restored her spirits, and she spent a quiet and, for him, blissful evening, playing at piquet. In the middle of a game she suddenly flung down her hand and caught at his wrist. "Dicky, Dicky--I will go home!" "Go home? What do you mean? Not--" "Yes, yes--Wyncham! Why not?"